Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Open Letter to an Anonymous Author (2 of 3)

You paid a print-on-demand house to publish your book, but what do you know about writing? Paying to have your book printed means you have money to spare, not that you’re an author.

You claim it’s not about rejection by traditional publishers or the strength of your work, it’s about having creative control and a bigger share of the profits. Right, then; what would you do if your P-O-D sales impressed the big boys so much, they offered to publish your book? If autonomy is so important to you, wouldn’t you tell them to stuff their contract in a pipe and smoke it? Think of the joy, being able to reject the ones who rejected you.

When you write, you’re pulling thoughts which are beautiful and perfect in your mind and putting them on paper. You need another set of eyes to tell you how close or how far you’ve gotten from capturing that perfect idea. It helps if those eyes aren’t on your payroll.